Caran d'Ache

Caran d'Ache was the pseudonym of the 19th century Russian-French satirist and political cartoonist Emmanuel Poiré[1] (6 November 1858 – 25 February 1909). The pseudonym comes from Russian: карандаш, romanized: karandash meaning "pencil" in Turkic languages. While his first work glorified the Napoleonic era, he went on to create "stories without words" and as a contributor to newspapers such as the Le Figaro, he is sometimes hailed as one of the precursors of comic strips. The Swiss art products company Caran d'Ache is named after him.[2]

For the Swiss manufacturer of writing instruments, see Caran d'Ache (company).
Caran d'Ache
Photographed 1890 by Atelier Nadar
BornEmmanuel Poiré
(1858-11-06)6 November 1858
Moscow, Russian Empire
Died25 February 1909(1909-02-25) (aged 50)
Paris, France
NationalityFrench

Biography

Born in Moscow on 6 November 1858, d'Ache was the grandson of an Officer-Grenadier in Napoleon's Grande Armée who, wounded during the Battle of Borodino, had stayed behind in Russia.[3] After his grandfather's death, he was adopted by a Polish family whose daughter he later married. His younger sister, Maria Poiret, became a famous dancer and actress.

In 1877, d'Ache emigrated to France where he gained French citizenship and joined the Army[3] for five years, where he was assigned to design uniforms for the ministry of war. He also contributed to their journal La Vie militaire with satirical illustrations, among them some caricatures of the German army.[1]

In 1898 he co-founded the satirical, anti-Dreyfusard weekly magazine Psst... ! along with fellow artist and designer Jean-Louis Forain. The magazine lasted 85 issues and was made up entirely of editorial cartoons by Caran d'Ache and Forain, caricaturing society and its scandals from an antisemitic, pro-Army viewpoint.[4][5]

He died in Paris on 25 February 1909 at the age of 50.

Works
Caran d'Ache's most famous cartoon. The Dreyfus Affair divided the whole of French society. Here, Caran d'Ache depicts a fictional family dinner. At the top, somebody remarks "Above all, let's not discuss the Dreyfus Affair!". At the bottom, the family is fighting and the caption reads, "They discussed it."

Much of his work was contributed to La Vie Parisienne, Le Figaro illustré, La Caricature, and Le Chat Noir. He also issued various albums of sketches and posters, some listed below. and illustrated a good many books, notably Benardaky's Prince Kozakokoff.[6][1]

  • 1880: His first drawings of military caricatures were published in La Chronique Parisienne.[7]
  • 1892: Caran d'Ache published Carnet de Chèques ("Checkbook") on the Panama Canal Affair.
  • 1895: He started publishing editorial cartoons (every Monday) in the daily Le Figaro, and soon thereafter for the popular weekly Le Rire.
  • A poster for an «Exposition Russe» in Paris was published in Les Maîtres de l'Affiche.
  • 1898: Caran d'Ache published the cartoon Un diner en famille ("A Family Dinner"), highlighting the intense disagreements in French society regarding the Dreyfus Affair. It appeared a month after Émile Zola's famous J'Accuse, which inflamed and hardened opinion on both sides.[8]

Sources
  1. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Caran d'Ache". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 301.
  2. Caran d’Ache and the story of the black stone Archived October 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Graphic Witness. "Le Rire".
  4. Lambeth, John. "La Caricature pendant la 3e République surtout autour de l'Affaire Dreyfus" [Caricature during the 3rd Republic especially with respect to the Dreyfus Affair]. wlu.edu (in French). Washington & Lee. Archived from the original on June 19, 2002. Retrieved November 23, 2017., quoting from Lethève, Jacques (1961). La caricature et la presse sous la IIIe République [Caricature and the Press in the 3rd Republic]. Kiosque #16 (in French). Paris: Armand Colin. OCLC 801910610.
  5. Forain, Jean-Louis; d'Ache, Caran (10 December 2012) [1st pub. 1898-1899]. "Psst...!(Paris)". BnF Gallica (in French). Paris: Plon. Retrieved November 23, 2017 – via "Source gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France".
  6. Benardaky (1885). Prince Kozakokoff. Paris: Librairie Plon.
  7. Lambiek Comiclopedia. "Caran d'Ache".
  8. Marrus, Michael R. (1994). "'En Famille': The Dreyfus Affair and Its Myths". French Politics and Society. Berghahn Books. 12 (4): 77–90. ISSN 0882-1267. JSTOR 42844432. The point of the cartoon—the volatility of the debate over Dreyfus, its explosive force, its capacity to divide families and by implication an entire country—is one of the most frequently made about the Affair, and one of the reasons why we remember it today, when so many other affaires have been forgotten.
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